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Gone

Review

In this last book of the Wake trilogy (following WAKE and FADE), Lisa McMann brings back reader favorite Janie, a dream catcher. Janie can’t even enjoy a vacation with boyfriend Cabel without being pulled into dreams of folks sleeping on the beach or on the bus. She is even pulled into Cabel’s disturbing dreams about what her own future with him will be like.

At the end of FADE, Janie learns that she likely will go blind and lose control of her hands when she reaches her 20s. She finds it hard to think about anything else. It’s as if every time she goes near someone sleeping --- even by accident --- she loses another part of herself. And she’s tired of it. But what are her options?

A family emergency sends Janie home from vacation. Her alcoholic mother causes a scene --- which isn’t new --- but this time she’s upset because her father, Henry, is dying. This is the father she never knew anything about. He lived not too far from them her whole life, and now he is in a coma. But then Janie enters his dream state and discovers that he can talk back to her in his dreams. She pieces more clues of his life from his lonely house in between hospital visits and caring for her mother.

What does this mean? Why did he leave her and her mother? Janie finds Henry’s dreams so painful, but keeps trying to get answers. Henry chose a way of life that would be very tempting for Janie. It would mean no more dreams, but it would also mean no more Cabel, no more best friend Carrie, and no more contact with her dependent mother. But maybe it would mean she could keep her sight a little longer. On the other hand, life without Cabel certainly would be full of pain.

You definitely need to have read the previous two installments of the series in order to follow along with this latest novel. Janie’s impossible choice comes through powerfully on every page. Having a psychic ability may seem cool, but living with it is something else for her. She struggles to decide what to do through the entire book, as she sorts out who she is and to whom she is not going to say goodbye. GONE is a fitting conclusion to a fascinating trilogy.